Safety or Something Like it
by princessmikey14
Summary: Kiara has traveled far in search of her sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew. She runs into a sheriff when her car breaks down. After his help, she continues on her own for a while. **I don't know who I'm going to eventually put my OC with, as of right now, there's a lot of places to take this story. Give it a chance** ?/OC. R


**Name: Kiara**

**Age: 30**

**Height: 5'5"**

**Hair: Brown; curly**

**Eyes: Dark blue **

**Name: Grady**

**Age: 4**

**Hair: Brown**

**Eyes: Brown**

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**I own nothing to the TWD story, however I do own my plot twists and my OCs (I hate that I have to say that because some people can't write for themselves). **

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"Stupid...Son of a...Ugh!" Rick had not seen someone so small and innocent looking that angry in a very long time. The girl continued to kick her car as she called out in annoyance some more and Rick debated going over to her, but he knew that he was rather weak on his own and maybe this woman could be helpful in some way, even if it was just to keep his sanity.

"Miss," Rick called once he was closer. She was in the middle of kicking the tire when she whipped around, gun aimed directly at him. He held his hands up to show her that he wasn't threatening her.

"What the hell do you want?" she shouted.

"Miss," he started again. "I'm a police officer and—"

"No, I didn't guess that at all by the stupid hat and golden star. What help is any of this to me?"

Ouch. Rick hadn't had a woman snap at him like that—other than Lori—ever. "I uh..." he was more or less at a loss of words. He had no idea what else to say to her.

"What are you going to do? Arrest the dead? I see that working out real well, they'll chomp your hand off before you even get those cuffs on you."

"Look I..."

Rick noticed her facial expression soften just slightly. She looked a lot more kind when she wasn't glaring daggers at him. "I shouldn't have said any of that," she realized. "I uh...I'm Kiara. I shouldn't take my anger out on you."

"Rick," he nodded back to her. "Might I be able to help you with something?"

"Only if you're a magical genie," she retorted. "Sorry," she caught herself quickly. "It's just my damn car."  
"Out of gas?" he held up his gas can, which was empty because he had the same problem.

"No, the tire's flat..." she felt embarrassed by her actions now, but she couldn't change them.

"I've got something that can help, back at my own car..."

"What do you want in return?" she asked.

"I don't need anything," he shrugged.

"That's not how things work." He just shrugged again.

"I'll be back. It's only about half a mile away," Rick nodded to her and went on his way."

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"Grady, don't go far," Kiara warned. The rosy cheeked boy looked at her and nodded. She probably focused more on the young boy than on her surroundings, but she couldn't help it. If she lost him too, she would lose the only reason she had to keep living. She was only the way she was now because of her experiences with the dead and the loss of too many family members.

The small boy knelt down to where a single dandelion was growing and plucked it. He came running back to Kiara and gave it to her. "Thank you Sweetie," she ruffled his hair. "Why don't you stay up here now? I'd rather you not be out there." With a slight frown, he nodded. Grady was only four and after seeing his father be slaughtered by the dead beasts, he went mute. He hadn't spoken a word to anyone and sometimes he would get into moods where she couldn't even get him to offer the smallest of smiles. He didn't cry, not usually, but when he did, that was the only time she could hear his voice.

"Kiara," at the sound of her name, she turned around quickly and saw the familiar sheriff. "Fix-A-Flat," he held up the can and knelt down at the front tire on the passenger side.

"Thanks," she picked Grady up and walked over to Rick.

"It was not a problem," he stood up and looked a little surprised upon seeing Grady.

"Where are you headed?" Kiara couldn't just not do anything for Rick.

"Atlanta. I've heard there's a refugee camp there. That's where my wife and son would be..." he looked down at the golden wedding band and began twisting it absent-mindedly.

"I've heard a lot of things, it doesn't mean I believe them anymore. I traveled here from Nevada."

"Nevada? What brings you all the way out here?"

"My sister, she lives just outside the city...I...I figured maybe I could find her."

"I can give you a ride far enough to find another vehicle, but I...I won't go into the city. I saw Las Vegas after all of this hit, from then on, I avoided any city that I could."

"I'd appreciate anything that I can get."

"I think I kind of owe you," she gave him a small smile.

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"We're about five miles outside of the city," Kiara told Rick. "My sister lives about ten miles east of here."

"So this is where we part ways?" Rick looked over at the woman next to him. He certainly was grateful to her.

"Yeah I'd say so," she gave him a half smile. "Thank you for saving my ass today."

"Thanks for savin' mine," he nodded to her before opening the car door. "I hope ya find your sister."

"I hope you find your wife and son."

Rick thought of something before they parted ways. He reached into his gun bag and pulled out a hand gun and one of the boxes of ammo and handed it to her.

"I can't accept this," she told him, unable to believe that he would give up something so rare and valuable in a time like this.

"Take it, Kiara. Keep that boy safe," he set the gun and ammo on the seat before heading off down the road.

"I'll find a way to repay you!" she called out the window before driving down the next road, the one that led to her sister's house.

Kiara's older sister, Leanna, was one of those perfect house wives with the working man husband and two children—one boy one girl—that at times made Kiara sick. She loved Leanna but it drove her nuts that she had conformed to the thing that they had always said they wouldn't be. It was so hypocritical, it was insane. That was one of the reasons why when Kiara had the chance, she moved to Nevada with her brother.

She followed the streets, disregarding all stop signs and cross walks. She had long forgotten turn signals and speed limits as well. She ended up deep into the subdivision and she stopped right by where Leanna's house was, but before she could even look at the home, there was a black jeep parked right across the street with a man loading things into the back of it. She didn't think that she would get lucky twice. She was a female all by herself and she always had to worry about men that could easily do awful things to her. Despite how much she wished she had muscle, she didn't. She had a desk job before all of this happened and her Saturday mornings did not consist of visiting her local gym, she would much rather sit on the couch, eat cereal, and watch cartoons with Grady.

"I want you to stay here," she told Grady. By this point, the man had spotted her and she stepped out slowly, gun drawn.

"Can I—" His hands shot up. "Whoa..."

"Put down your weapon," she wasn't taking any chance. The dark haired man didn't move to put down his weapon.

"I can't do that. Ma'am, I've got people countin' on me. I won' hurt ya if ya don' hurt me," he told her.

"I can't trust you," she replied back. I don't _want_ to hurt you but if I have to, I can..."

"A'right, look, I'm puttin' my gun down," he set it on the back of his Jeep. "Is there somethin' I can help ya with...?" he asked, hands still raised. She looked rather intimidating with her dark jeans tucked into her combat boots along with her black leather jacket. She had her hair pulled back into a pony tail and even under this circumstance, Shane couldn't help but think that she was absolutely sexy.

"I'm looking for my sister. She lived in the house behind me before all of this."

"You don't want to go in there," Shane couldn't stop the words from escaping. He knew that house to be the one he avoided on his supply runs.

"Wh...why?" her aim wavered a little.

"Whole family in there...killed 'emselves..."

"I don't believe you."

"They all have blonde hair, there's a mom, a dad, two kids—one boy one girl."

"My sister would never do that," Kiara spat. "You're a damn liar."

"Go look if you want," the man looked back her, slightly pitying her now. He could tell that she was on her own and that this was the last shred of hope that she had.

Kiara considered going up to the house she also considered falling onto the ground and sobbing her eyes out. She did neither though, instead, she grabbed the door handle and went to open the door.

He wasn't sure why he did it, but he moved swiftly and put his hand to the door. "I understand why yer goin' through," he told her. "I...I'm part of a camp, a place where ya can be safe."

Kiara turned and looked at him carefully, her dark blue eyes barely meeting his brown ones. "Why would you help me?...I just...I just pointed a gun at you."

"Ya were doin' what ya thought woul' keep ya safe," he told her. "Shane Walsh," he held out his hand, she had long ago put her gun down and she gently shook his hand.

"Kiara West."

"'S nice ta meet ya, Kiara. Like I said, I'm a part of a bigger group, what do ya say ya join us? We take in other survivors," he smiled at her and she bit her hip.

"How would everyone feel about that? I mean would your leader be mad?"

"I'm kinda the leader," he pulled up his pants and smirked at her. "They'll like ya, trust me."

"Okay," a voice in the back of her head told her that maybe she shouldn't trust him, but another voice over powered it and she agreed.

"Jus' follow me an' I'll lead the way."

"Wait," she said after he started to turn away. He quickly turned back to face her and raised his eyebrows.

"It's not just me...I have a kid with me..."

"The more the merrier."

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Kiara wasn't sure if she was truly happy to be in a group a survivors. They couldn't survive together, she knew that. But, she couldn't be alone any longer, she had Grady but he didn't speak and she feared her sanity if she didn't join other people. When Rick was helping her, she felt more like a real person than she had in a long time.

"Do ya wanna meet everybody?" Shane asked, she had followed his jeep here from the subdivision.

"I guess," she shrugged, he noted her nervous look.

"Hey, they'll like ya, I promise. And you too," Shane ruffled Grady's hair as she held the small boy on her hip.

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**AN: Hi guys, this is my latest TWD story...I just haven't really felt like writing these ones and I kind of wanted to start from the beginning (again) hopefully I'll be pretty far by the time season 5 starts...as long as people like the idea and want me to continue, on that note, reviews are very encouraging and if you would like to keep reading, reviews help that. So thanks for reading.**

**~Michelle~**


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